Lockdown

Season 9, Episode 19

Written by SeriesTherapy and Trinity Everett

This is a work of fiction by writers with no professional connection to ABC network's Castle. Recognizable characters are the property of Andrew Marlowe and ABC. Names, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

It wasn't even six o'clock in the morning when Captain Beckett set foot in the precinct. As usual, she stopped to chat with the desk sergeant for a moment, and then she took the elevator to the fourth floor. The night shift was coming to an end, and there were only a few early birds like herself, so the place looked emptier than normal. All the activity progressed at a slower pace at that time, as the workers waited for the caffeine to kick in.

Beckett didn't mind the early start. She never had. She found that the quiet helped her think.

And while Ryan might not share the sentiment about arriving with the sun, she wasn't surprised to find him nose-deep in paperwork at this early hour. She knew that it was because he wanted to be able to knock off earlier in the afternoon to spend more time with his family.

"Morning, Ryan," she greeted on her way to her office.

"Hey, boss, what are you doing here?" Ryan asked. "I didn't think you'd come in this early on your last day."

"I have to make sure everything's ready," she answered.

It was going to be her last day before her maternity leave, and, besides a bit of paperwork to complete, everything was set for her departure. She just had to tie up a few loose ends, nothing serious.

On days like this, when she arrived at the precinct so early - or rather, when Castle stayed at home - she had developed a ritual. The first thing she would do was to leave her things and turn on her computer. Then, she would go get a cup of coffee while the computer whirred to life. She preferred the coffees her husband provided, but getting her caffeine fix couldn't always wait. Of course, those days, her coffee had to be decaf, but old habits die hard. This morning was no different.

She took her time to fix her coffee the way she liked it, and then she returned to her desk, ready to face the neverending pile of paperwork. She was in the middle of replying to an email from 1PP about her maternity leave when suddenly, all the lights went off, and the whole floor was filled with darkness. She clumsily stood from her chair, managing to get to the door by gripping the edge of her desk and letting what little light came in through the closed blinds guide her.

"Don't worry, it's just a blackout," she exclaimed, loud enough for everyone to hear above the growing clamor of voices. "The backup generator will pick up in a second."

No sooner had she said those words than the lights came back on, and she saw a few officers sigh, clearly relieved.

"See? Nothing to worry ab-"

But her sentence was cut off abruptly by a chorus of screams and loud bangs coming from the distance.

"It seems to be coming from holding," Vikram said from the door of the tech room.

Beckett just had to share a look with Ryan to send him running in the general direction of the noises, gun unholstered and ready. Her pregnancy made it difficult for her to follow, so she got to the scene a few seconds after him and a few others. The first thing that caught her attention was the body of an officer on the floor.

"It's Parker. He was in charge of holding last night," LT informed her.

Ryan was crouched next to the body, his hand on the man's neck, checking for vitals. He shook his head and turned to look at Beckett.

"He's dead," he confirmed.

Beckett was still absorbing this information when she heard LT speak again. The urgency in his voice was unmistakable.

"The cells," he said. "The cells are open."

"And empty," Ryan added, running a hand over his face.

"I need to call this in," Beckett said, patting her pocket only to find it empty of her cell phone. Damn it, she must've left it on her desk. "Ryan, can I–"

"Sure, boss." He unlocked the phone for her, handing it over. She smiled briefly at his background photo before pulling up the dial pad and tapping out Gates's phone number.

Only to have nothing happen.

Lifting the phone away from her ear, she found the words No Service staring back at her.

"You get signal in here usually?" she asked.

"Yeah, full strength. Why?"

Beckett showed him the phone. "Because you've got nothing right now."

The others rumbled similar sentiments as they checked their phones. Her stomach dropped when one of the officers lifted the handset in the corner and said the same thing about the landline.

"There's no dial tone, Captain."

Scanning the room to assess the situation, Beckett reacted before any of the people present could say another word. She turned to the officers behind her and spoke in a very clear voice.

"Baker, Sanders, I need you to head downstairs, head outside, use your phones or find one that works. Call Gates at 1PP, tell her we have a situation. Tell her we're working to resolve it, but nobody leaves this building until we find the person responsible for this. Block all exits. From this moment on, the precinct is on lockdown."

The hot water was doing wonders for his mood. Kyle had worked the night shift, and he was almost daydreaming about his bed. But before that, he had a date. The prospect was enough to bring a tired smile to his face. With Alexis's graduation fast approaching, they barely had any time to see each other, so they had resorted to sharing a few meals here and there, between his shifts and her classes and study sessions.

Alexis was supposed to meet him outside the precinct to go to one of their favorite diners for breakfast, but he still had a few minutes to enjoy the warmth of the shower before he had to get going.

He was still musing about their plans when, suddenly, the lights went out in the locker room. Efficiently removing the last remnants of shampoo from his hair, he turned the handle to stop the flow of water, and blindly reached for the towel. He managed to find it and exit the small cubicle when the lights went back on, and he almost let go of the towel when he saw another man in the room.

"Wow, man, I didn't see you there!" he exclaimed, grabbing the towel more firmly around his hips.

"Well, obviously," the other man said, fastening the last buttons of his shirt. "There was no light."

"Yeah, well... What do you think that was about?" Kyle asked while he put his clothes on as quickly as he could.

"Dunno," the man shrugged. "I'm sure it was nothing. Don't worry about it."

Kyle noticed the man struggled slightly to breathe, probably from the effort of getting dressed at such high speed as he was. He was struggling himself, after all.

"Maybe," Kyle conceded, "but I'm not too sure. Something feels weird."

"So what? You're one of those cops who walk around following 'hunches' and all that crap? A blackout is a blackout, supercop."

He didn't respond, deciding it was not worth it. Given the time, the other man probably was just as tired as he was.

"Crap, Mark, the precinct is under lockdown!"

The exclamation came from another man barging into the room, out of breath and clearly disturbed, if the way his chest heaved was any indication. His uniform was disheveled, and drops of sweat ran down his face.

"Lockdown?" Kyle asked, wanting to make sure he heard correctly.

The other officer turned to Kyle with a surprised expression, seeming to realize he and Mark weren't alone in the locker room.

"Yes, that's what I heard," the newcomer - Officer Reynolds, according to his badge - confirmed.

"We have to find out what's going on," Kyle said as he grabbed his gun. "Let's go."

Giving his phone another glance, Castle wasn't entirely surprised to see the text he had sent his wife as he left their bed was still unread. Kate had been going to the precinct early every day for the past week to get things taken care of before her maternity leave started, and nearly every day her hope of having an easy, quiet day had fallen by the wayside. More than once, he had walked into the precinct a few hours after texting to find her desk empty and hear she was on her way back from an impromptu meeting with Gates. But at this hour, he had to hope that Beckett just hadn't yet had the chance to look at her phone.

He planned to join her at lunch and stay for the rest of her last day on the job, but they had decided to divide and conquer for the morning. In fact, his goal for the first part of the day was to take care of signing the large pile of books that Gina had sent over a week ago, and take the even larger pile of things he and Beckett had decided they could part with to a donation center by the time Kate returned home.

And he would get started on those tasks quite soon, after a delicious, hearty breakfast. His pan was almost up to temperature, which meant he needed to get his eggs and chopped peppers whisked quickly. Once he got that part in the pan, he would tackle making his toast.

Breakfast of champions. And best-selling novelists who wanted to have enough energy to get the house ready for their daughter's arrival.

Rick smiled to himself; just a few more weeks and Lily would be here, which was both wonderful and terrifying wrapped in one. It had been a long time since he'd had a newborn.

Engrossed as he was in planning ahead, he almost missed his phone's insistent buzz from the opposite countertop. Scooping it up, Castle answered the call without bothering to look at the display. After all, it was probably his wife calling to talk about his text; she had developed a habit of doing that lately, not wanting to take the chance that she would be pulled away before she managed to finish typing the message.

"Missing me yet, Beckett?" he teased, tucking the phone between his shoulder and his ear to be able to continue to whisk the eggs.

"I'm glad you opened with that, pathetic as it was, because I did not want to hear your other pillow talk," Esposito clipped in greeting. Castle straightened, his mouth opening to defend himself, but his friend didn't give him the chance. "Have you talked to her recently? Beckett."

Castle stopped, straightening his back. What was going on? "Not since she left earlier, why?"

"Look, I don't want you to panic – or do anything stupid – but–"

Dread tumbled through his chest, sending his heart into his throat. Nothing good ever followed being told not to panic, especially when it came from Esposito. "What happened?"

"There's a situation down here," Esposito started. "The precinct's under lockdown."

"I'm on my way," he said, yanking the burner knob hard to the right – so hard he hoped he hadn't broken the thing.

"No, listen. Listen to me. You need to stay put."

Yeah, too damn late for that. "I'll be right there."

Esposito growled in his ear. "Did you not hear what I just said?"

"I heard you, and I'm not sure calm and 'the precinct's under lockdown' necessarily go together," Castle snapped, forcing himself to take a breath as he moved to his bedroom and shoved his feet into the first non-slipper shoes he could find. "Sorry. Focused. What the hell happened?"

"Still trying to figure that out. I wasn't on shift yet, so I don't know what triggered it, but I got a call from 1PP telling me there'd been an incident, and I just confirmed for myself that there's no getting in or out right now. Radio is down. So are the phones, landline and cell. I had to walk to the end of the block just to get a signal to call you."

That did nothing to reassure him. Not a damn thing.

"Since she was emailing me earlier, I'm going to assume Beckett was at work, right? Not out of the house for any other reason?"

Castle rubbed his forehead, looking around for a button-down to throw on over his t-shirt. "Yeah. Yeah, she went in early again today."

"Ryan did, too. Sarah Grace has pee-wee gymnastics tonight. Which means they're both in there," Esposito added, though from the volume, Castle had a feeling it was a thought the detective had meant to keep to himself.

"So what do we do?" he asked, taking stock of his progress – he had his phone in hand, which meant he needed keys and his wallet. "Sneak in the back? Look for secret messages on the blinds?"

Esposito sighed. "I'm not going to convince you to stay home, am I?"

"While my wife and my friends are under lockdown and we can't even communicate with them? Not a chance."

"In that case, why don't you meet me at your office – your old office, whatever – and maybe Hayley can help us figure out what the hell's going on."

Castle nodded, making a mental note to call Hayley and give her a heads up after he and Espo finished talking. "I'm on my way."

Seconds later, he was on his way out the door, giving the pile of donations waiting by the stairs a short look.

Spring cleaning would have to wait.